ARLA/CLUSTER: Planeado o lançamento de 4 CubeSat desde a ISS em 2017

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Ham Radio BIRDS CubeSat Constellation

The BIRDS constellation, planned to deploy from the ISS in 2017, will
consist of four 1U CubeSats (BIRD-B, BIRD-J, BIRD-G and BIRD-M)

They are made of the exactly same design including the radio
frequencies to be used and will be deployed together.

The main mission of the constellation is to do experiments on radio
communication with a CubeSat constellation via a network of UHF/VHF
amateur radio ground stations all over the world.

The challenge is to distinguish each satellite from the four
satellites transmitting with the same frequency, hand over operation
of a satellite from one ground station to another and assemble the
satellite data, such as housekeeping telemetry, music and the Earth
images, obtained at different ground stations.

Amateur radio enthusiasts are asked to join the network to assist in
the data downlink and reconstruction of the patchy satellite data into
one meaningful data. Orbit information and operational plan of each
satellite will be made available to the amateur radio community in the
world. Software to decode the satellite data will be also made
available.

The respective amateur ground stations that can successfully decode
the telemetry data, music and the Earth images, shall receive a QSL
card from the BIRDS team. The data reconstructed by the effort of the
amateur ground station network will be made public to share the sense
of satisfaction and achievement.

A particularly interesting mission of BIRDS project is the SNG mission
that exchanges music via a digi-singer. It is an outreach-oriented
mission. First, music in MIDI format is uploaded from ground. Then the
MIDI file is processed on-board using a vocal synthesizer. Finally,
the processed music is sent back to Earth using UHF antenna as voice
FM data.

During organized events on space utilization with schools or general
public, music could be heard using a common hand-held receiver and
hand-made Yagi antenna positioned to track the satellite at each given
pass over the region. This has a tremendous effect on awareness of
radio communication among school children and general public,
especially in the countries participating in the BIRDS project, Japan,
Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

Proposing to use CW, 1k2 AFSK FM, audio FM and 9k6 GMSK downlinks.
Planning a JAXA sponsored deployment from the ISS during 2017.

BIRDS project information:
http://birds.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/
http://birds.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/amateur.html
http://birds.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/newsletter.html
https://www.facebook.com/Joint-Global-Multi-Nation-Birds-BIRDS-project-171403156542445/

Download the Paper – IAA-CU-15-01-16 Five-nations CubeSat
constellation; An inexpensive test case for learning and capacity
building
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
289868265_IAA-CU-15-01-16_Five-nations_CubeSat_constellation_An_
inexpensive_test_case_for_learning_and_capaci-_ty_building

The IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination pages are hosted by AMSAT-UK at
http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/